At the last General Meeting, we had a classic WCU moment were we debated Community/Coalition Meetings for 30 minutes and then tabled the discussion. But the discussion did reveal some questions that we have to clarify.
The original idea was to hold monthly meetings where individuals and community groups could share what they are working on. WCU would do a 10 minute intro (plug our stuff), have a few 15-minute presentation + feedback sessions, and then have open discussion at the end.
One big discussion point was the guest list. One side was that we should keep barriers to entry low, let whoever comes talk for five minutes, and at the end, we would let the attendees decide who we want to hear more from.
The other perspective was that many leftists groups and efforts get hijacked by nonprofits who would swoop in with well polished presentations and actions that make more immediate sense than what others might propose. These groups are already at people’s churches, they flyer at local businesses, they have the institutional legitimacy we don’t, and they are literally paid to round up volunteers. We are trying to find people who do not have those kinds of resources and link up with them.
There was discussion over allowing those nonprofits to come and members/attendees learning from experience that these groups are largely presenting surface-level projects that do not challenge power. However, the pushback was that we have been through this many times already (as the broad left) and we should put into practice lessons we should learn from history, without having to learn them first hand.
Key questions to discuss further before the next general meeting
What do we call these events? I say the (Working Class) Unity Assemblies
Can individuals present? Or just organizations?
Do we / how do we filter out people who will waste time, whose broad goals we disagree with, or who are trying to take advantage of our venue?
At the last General Meeting, we voted to hold: Community Assembly - hosted by Working Class Unity
General Meeting Minutes
Community Assembles
We voted to launch Community Assemblies - structured forums where community members share ideas, concerns, and connect with explicit restrictions preventing certain establishment players from co-opting the event for self-promotion.
After extensive discussion, WCU members agreed that a space where working-class people can communicate, coordinate, and learn from each much needed in San Joaquin County (Stockton at least). By hosting it ourselves, we can keep those with institutional power from hijacking bottom up demands and help people understand individual (or group) problems as class issues.
Current Format
Opening Statement
Brief presentation of current Working Class Unity initiatives
Transition to either open floor or have people sign up to present so we have an idea about time constraints
Speaking Structure
Initial slot: 3-5 minutes per speaker
Extension option (by audience vote?): Additional five minutes for group discussion
Participation Rules
The following are allowed to present: Community members and organizations sharing concerns, ideas, or in-progress work.
The following are not allowed to present: Politicians promoting campaigns; business owners and landlords advertising services or doing self-promotion; political staffers promoting their employers.
Outstanding Decision
NGO participation still remains undetermined. We will address this later based on our initial experiences with this event.
Action Items
Vote on your availability so we can host our first Community Assembly in August
Estimated time: 2 minutes
Deadline: July 20th
Assigned to (@username): WCU_Members
Status: Unclaimed | In Progress | Needs Review | Completed
Draft community guidelines for speaking at the event
Notes: Please use this Google Doc
to work on community guidelines. Perhaps we can keep it simple and lift from our Code of Conduct.
Estimated time: 30 minutes
Deadline: End of July
Assigned to (@username): @Tanner
Status: Unclaimed | In Progress | Needs Review | Completed
Decide whether we want to live stream this event and if so, how to address address not wanting to be on camera
Notes: Please discuss in this thread below.
Deadline: End of July
Status: In Progress | Completed
I think we should call them Community Assemblies, it gets the point across and also everybody loves the word “community”.
I think we should allow individuals to present, but I also think the presentation length should be shorter for both individuals and groups down to about 2 minutes. If they present something that the Assembly finds interesting we can take a vote to hear more.
As far as filtering goes, I think we should have relatively short time limits, require votes to extend those time limits, and have a maximum of 1 presentation per month per person/group. Additionally we should have some minor decorum requirements, so you know a racist can’t just stand there and hurl slurs. This should limit the amount of time and mental energy wasted, while giving those Assembled to power to decide what is important to them.
Now, I also think we should try to do coalition meetings / spokes councils or form some kind of federation.
This would be different from the Community Assemblies in that only delegates from local organizations would be allowed to attend. Each org would select a delegate from among their membership, and those delegates would be attend meetings designed to coordinate the efforts of the broader working class movement in the area.
These meetings are exclusively intended for the sharing of information and coordination.
The community assemblies ensure that we are embedded in our local community, while the council meetings ensure that all of the mass movements in the area are rowing in the same direction as it were.
I just wanted to clarify some of what I was saying and what I think the goals for these meetings should be.
The working class cannot exist as a political force without organization. These Community Assemblies can create a mechanism to transform isolated individuals facing problems into participants in the broader class struggle.
These Assemblies should help us to avoid having to wait for an issue to boil over before we notice it, by which time intervention is much more difficult. Instead, we should attempt to actively intervene in the consciousness formation process by:
Inviting people who are already fighting against landlords, bosses, and systemic issues
Helping them understand their individual struggles as a part of broader class dynamics
Providing tools and support that demonstrates the power of collective action
Creating pathways into more sustained organizational work instead of one-off struggles
We should try to identify people who are already demonstrating leadership in their communities and providing them with the analysis and tools to be more effective. We have a few tools to do this:
Skill-building: Teaching organizing conversations and collective action tactics
Integration: Connecting individual struggles to existing campaigns when appropriate (tenant unions, labor organizing)
Escalation: Taking on issues directly when they serve consciousness-building purposes
It can be difficult to get political education to translate when it’s coming form abstract argument. But when people are able to integrate political education it into their own experiences and into practical work, our arguments are much more likely to stick.
In summary, Community Assemblies should fit right in with our other work of agitating, clarifying, educating, and organizing the working class.
Stuff like this is important (and why it’s hard to replicate NYC tactics outside of the city) and is a bigger deal than people want to admit.
Anyway, I think we should put in the time to really do outreach ahead of time and actually go into churches and other places to invite folks out. Like the end of the KPA article says, it’s not Trump 2016, and we are not going to get the same easy mobilization. I know with the ICE event happening yesterday it feels like we need to rush things, but personally would rather ensure we can go people outside of the usual crowd to the event. But I do agree we should pick a day asap and start promoting it.
